


tremble little lion man, you'll never settle any of your scores

by gggghost (dukeborninfebruary)



Category: DreamSMP, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Drabble, Explicit Language, Gen, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:42:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27382138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dukeborninfebruary/pseuds/gggghost
Summary: Quackity looks at Wilbur, and he sees a man fallen to his own hubris.Not a hint of the old Wilbur remains, and more than anything he does not want to end up like him.Or:Quackity convinces Wilbur to delay the detonation of Manburg.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 61





	tremble little lion man, you'll never settle any of your scores

Wilbur says to him, in a bunker underground, “I know you, Quackity. I know you love chaos, I know. You’re just like Technoblade. If I blew this place up you would fucking _love_ it.”

And maybe, Quackity reflects, he would. Maybe if Wilbur pressed that button he would love it. Maybe if Manburg was blown up and gone for good, rubble and fire, completely destroyed. Snuffed out like a candle, with the ease of a simple pinch. Maybe he would like that.

Maybe, he could finally move on, break free of Schlatt’s clutch. He could build a house, perhaps near Tommy’s old house, the embassy, whatever it is these days. He could have a garden and a few sheep and he could live in peace for once in his fucking life.

It would be nice.

But it isn’t that simple, it never is.

Wilbur, he thinks, cares- cared too much. He built a country up from the ground and he gave and he gave to his new nation until he had nothing left, and when he tried to give some more he caved and crumpled.

The button room isn’t what Quackity imagined it to be. It is more than a simple cave, the walls, carefully carved and smoothed, are scrawled with the words of a song he thinks Wilbur may never forget. The floor is littered with cigarette butts.

He looks at Wilbur, and he sees a man fallen to his own hubris. Wilbur, with his ragged coat and bloodstained shirt, hair mussed and uncombed, fell for his own reasoning and ruling and moral code, lost a battle fought against himself and came out something entirely different from what he once strived to be.

Not a hint of the old Wilbur remains, and more than anything Quackity does not want to end up like him.

And as he stands there, he reflects that he alone ruined Wilbur Soot’s life. A practical joke, to a campaign, to a coalition and a suit he never thought he would wear. God, he’s so young. 19 years old, and about to lose his home and maybe his life in the explosion the result of a madman he goaded on.

Well, they do say you reap what you sow. And if he planted the first seeds of doubt in this man’s mind he, by all means has it coming.

And still, despite everything he thinks, everything he knows — the voice in his head screaming at him to fucking give up already, he wrestles Wilbur away from the button and pleads and begs until his voice threatens to give out.

And here is one thing he can rely on. His ability to persuade.

He tells himself it’s for Tommy and Tubbo and Niki, and Eret and Fundy even if they’re both lying, traitorous bastards in their own ways.

(It’s odd, he thinks, that he is so involved with the internal conflict of a dead nation he never was and never will truly be a part of.)

He promises Wilbur he will do what has to be done by Friday, and as he follows Wilbur through the cramped hallway exiting the button room he feels the suffocating pressure of this new responsibility settle on his shoulders and around his throat. With a sigh, he sets off towards Pogtopia.

**Author's Note:**

> hello i have returned. every time there is a hint of canon content on the smp i start screaming incoherently and occasionally a fic comes out. sorry this is so short but i wrote it in like 30 minutes and it could be worse
> 
> song title from "little lion man" by mumford and sons


End file.
